Every now and then an artist genuinely sidesteps expectation. Creative development is one thing, but I’m talking about real stylistic upheaval. Thomas Andrew Doyle, better known as Tad Doyle of TAD, Hog Molly and most recently Brothers of the Sonic Cloth, released his ambitious solo debut, Incineration Ceremony, last month via Yuggoth Records as a limited-pressing CD, and with it he essentially takes the noise and intensity for which he’s known and reshapes it into an entirely new form. Cinematic and classical in its influence, Incineration Ceremony works in a scope and with a different instrumental context than anything he’s done before.

And yet, as Tad says in the behind-the-scenes “The Making of Incineration Ceremony” interview video premiering below, “A lot of these songs’ subject matter comes from being a tortured soul, like everybody else on this planet,” and one would hardly listen through Incineration Ceremony and find it less oppressive than, say, the 2015 Brothers of the Sonic Cloth self-titled debut (review here), even if that sonic oppression arrives in a much different cloak. Recorded at his own Witch Ape Studio, the tracks vary in take but maintain an atmosphere of intensity that has typified Doyle‘s work throughout his career. That is to say, it’s his, one way or another.

If you haven’t heard the record yet, it’s streaming in full at the bottom of this post via Doyle‘s Bandcamp. As he notes, it shares many elements with soundtrack work and one might even hear it as a pitch to compose a score at some point down the line, and as he cites influences from Morricone to Mozart, dronescapes like “Asleep in Arrythmia” and “Born into Sorrow” and the avant piano course of “Bio-Illogical Functions” explore a corresponding breadth (and corresponding depths) that bring a new measure of context to Doyle‘s artistic evolution. Some moments offer horror, some hypnotic immersion, but underneath Incineration Ceremony as a whole is that threat of something firy, and the album never ceases to maintain that, no matter the direction of a given track or movement.

You can check out Doyle talking about Incineration Ceremony in the clip below, followed by some more info from the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Thomas Andrew Doyle, The Making of Incineration Ceremony

The adventurous nine-track recording is a return to roots of sorts for DOYLE. Spending his formative years in music playing in jazz clubs while attending school studying classical and jazz music at Boise State University, DOYLE comes forth with a symphonic take on what is going on in his head. Spawned from the dark and dreary recesses of DOYLE’s psyche comes an immense sound of textures, rhythms, and material suitable for film and standalone listening, disquieting all who are within an earshot.

DOYLE began working on this new project last year and as the work continued he became obsessed with writing and making the work come together. About the songs DOYLE shares, “It has been a very organic process of putting this all together and I have had so much fun in the process.” Guest musician friend and composer Peter Scartabello adds additional percussion on two tracks while the artwork and layout of friend Demian Johnston puts the mood of the record into a visual representation of some of the musical content.